"Alphabet Bandwidth Soup:
DS1, DS2, DS3, OC1, OC12 Speeds"

DS3 - OC3 - OC12 - OC48 - T1 - T3 Pricing

DS1, DS2, DS3, OC1, OC12 - speeds that mean little or nothing to the average computer user. Customers review plans and rates of telecommunications service providers with a blank stare.

• What is a DS3?
• What is a T3?

DS1, DS3, OC3, OC12 speeds - is there really a difference? For the average customer seeking Internet or network access, it is all just so much alphabet bandwidth soup.

Before getting into a discussion of the differences of these speeds, it is important to have an understanding of what these speeds actually mean. These rates of speed refer more specifically to the amount of data being transferred as a signal between one access point and another at any given time.

Without getting bogged down into technicalities, these rates of speed will vary dependent upon how they are compressed and how they are transmitted between the access points. The bandwidth speed is measured in increments of bits or bytes per second as input through either DS (Digital Signal) channels or OC (Optical Carrier), which uses a STS (Synchronous Transport Signal).

DS1, DS2, DS3, OC1, OC12 Speeds

Type # of Channels Speed

• DS1 24 1.544 Mbps (Megabytes per second)  
• DS3 672 44.736 Mbps
• OC3 - 51.84 Mbps (approximately equivalent to 28 DS1s)
• OC12 - 622.08 Mbps (approximately equivalent to 12 OC1s)

The number of channels indicated in the chart above refer to the number of 64 Kbps (Kilobytes per second) voice conversations that can be handled at any one time. It is rare to find individual, private customers or users that are in need of access rates of this amount.

These high-volume access levels are more geared toward the business customer. The size of a business and the volume of calls or network use will dictate the level of service and access needed. Whatever the situation, the intent of this article was to help make a little more sense out of the DS1, DS3, OC1, OC12 speeds that make up the alphabet bandwidth soup.